Chapter 1 – Prologue~2 MINS READING TIME

Translated by seal.

“THIS BOOK IS FORBIDDEN, ALL OFFENDERS WILL BE PUNISHED.”

Chonghua had once produced two young and promising generals, like water meets fire, both as different as the eye could see1[泾渭分明 (Jīng Wèi fēn míng) means “as rivers Jing and Wei separate clearly”, and is an idiom meaning “to be entirely different”].

The one like water was called Mo Xi; cold by nature, he practiced abstinence, and has been single to this day. Within the army, the stakes on when General Mo would finally offer up his virginity had accumulated to the point where it could fill any poor man’s belt with ten thousand strings of gold overnight2[腰缠万贯 (yāo chán wàn guàn) means “ten thousand strings of cash in the money belt”, and refers to carrying lots of money or being extremely wealthy.].

The one like fire was called Gu Mang; warm by nature, he was always full of smiles, and treasured the ladies like precious jewels3[怜香惜玉 (lián xiāng xī yù), an idiom meaning “to have tender, protective feelings for the fairer sex”.]. If he had to pay out of his pockets for every single time he kissed a girl, then he’d probably have to pawn off all his possessions down to the underwear he wears to afford it.

There was a day, long before Gu Mang had committed treason, where on a sudden whim, he grabbed a book that he had compiled and ran over to ask Mo Xi to write his opinion of it.

At that time, General Mo was holding several volumes of books, his hands tied with military affairs, so he only asked General Gu one sentence: “What did you write?”

Mo Xi did not respond, staring at him for a moment before dropping his long eyelashes. Then, with an unreadable expression, he wrote two ruthlessly cold lines in Regular script4[正楷 (zhèngkǎi) is Regular script in Chinese Calligraphy and is a very neat calligraphy style, and in this context of usage, it’s meant to feel like the equivalent of Mo Xi red marking in large block capitals across the book.]: